I personally believe that a good, properly made tiramisu is never out of fashion. I think what's outdated is the 90s-style presentation -- a perfectly square slice, showered with cocoa powder and topped with curls of chocolate, with a smear of some kind of sauce on the plate. We scoop it out of the dish in messy dollops -- which I much prefer.

Like cheesecake, I've discovered that tiramisu is everyone's secret favourite (almost guilty pleasure). However, like you, I haven't made one for years. The best one in my repertoire is from the Il Fornaio Baking book - fairly time-consuming, but worth it and I still get requests.

In Joaane Chang's wonderful cookbook Flour, she has a recipe she calls The New Tiramisu, a coffee sponge cake served with mascarpone mousse. I haven't made it, but it sounds amazing. I've made the tiramisu from Cooks Illustrated for several years, and it's always one of my most requested desserts. Like Merrill, I serve it in scoops. Mostly because I can't be bothered cutting desserts into perfect squares, but that's just me.

I've made Nigella Lawson's version in her book, Nigella Christmas, which uses chocolate cake instead of savoiardi. The amped up chocolate flavour makes it really good - well, the combination of chocolate and coffee is one of my favourites!

That said, who cares what is fashionable? It is what *you* like that counts. I remember being laughed out of the kitchen by a couple of chefs when I was a teenager, throwing my first dinner party, because I told them I was making spanikopita (apparently that was HILARIOUS!). Whatever. I adore spanikopita, and 20 years later, I make the meanest spinach pie you will ever taste, AND I can whip it up in a flash. I'm just going to keep turning it out until it comes back in style; it is always pulls down raves from my guests.

I'll venture to say that I do think it's slightly out of vogue at the moment; it was also never one of my favorites. But, if it's one of yours, you should be all means make it.
Ina Garten has this interesting variation, which I would like to make at some point: original:http://www.foodnetwork...